I was reading one beekeeper was having good luck with Ortho grub x.. Thanks for your new revised set up. The longer your bee yard is present the worse the Beetles are. They are coming out from the ground..lol
I'm coming to this late because I just lost a hive to beetles and so far it looks like you have one of the best solutions. Super job Jeff, great work on a serious problem and fantastic videos.
Hi Brian, Thanks, I try to keep the videos short but filled with useful info, the hard part is keep them from getting boring, my charm and good looks only go so far (just kidding).
Hello Richard, Your welcome and the Inside the Hive videos with the bees reaction to the 2.0 Beetle Barriers will be informative. I've got some more useful video's coming up soon.
The mesh ramp worked great to keep the forager bees away from the Neverwet coated barriers but adhesion of the Industrial Neverwet was a problem. I found out something about the adhesion to the aluminum flashing that I will share on the next video, which will help everyone.
Perhaps include a new version using the aerasol never wet (the industrial is above my price range) to see if the bees removed it since it’s out of the way Thanks very much for your work and looking forward to your inside the hive video
I think the information that I'll share about aluminum flashing on the next video may solve a lot of problems, even with the spray cans of Neverwet, subscribe, like and stay tuned....
I understand the gap between the bottom board and folded down edge of mesh must be a minimum 1/4” so beetles can’t climb up. What is the max gap width that will provide a ramp, yet still offer protection from the housecleaning bees?
Hello Judith, You really want to try and keep a uniform gap of 1/4", if it is more than 1/4" the bees don't seem to walk up into the hive as smoothly from the bottom board. Just get a 1/4" thick anything and check the mesh gap while the shim is laying on a flat surface, just don't let the mesh touch the bottom board inside the hive. Good luck with your bees..
Hi John, Your welcome, The second set of beetle barriers using aluminum that has the surface conditioned worked much better. I made more videos of another set of the new removable Beetle Barriers and and their results, here are the videos enjoy. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gXU2EAT2lek.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EkW3g797A2Q.html
I have a couple of questions just want to make sure I followed your results. Sanded, etched, primed, then the "never wet" coatings worked the best, right? Were you using the commercial grade "never wet" or no? I'm curious if the regular consumer grade will work after that prep? Of the designs you show in the above video, which one do you think worked the best? Thanks for all you do.
Hi Shaun, In my Apiary am using the first design model that I'm showing in the video, the one with the plastic netting did nothing to stop the bees from building some drone comb on the bottom of the frames. The 1st stage of Neverwet is a primer for the 2nd stage but sanding is a must in order to remove the polymer coating that is on the aluminum flashing and also increase adhesion. Etching increases the the adhesion on any metal surface which may be enough for the 1st stage spray can to adhere to. On the last test for the "Inside the Hive" video I used the Industrial Neverwet but the bees adapted so well to walking on the mesh ramps that I think the spray cans of Neverwet may work.
Thank you for quick response just one more question I search on google for aluminum strips and thousands show up can you please tell me which one to buy also I watch all your videos and subscribe you
Hello, If you watched all the Beetle Barrier videos you'll see that I used 20" wide aluminum flashing sold at most Lowes or Home Depot, just cut it to size of the flanges but you really must watch all the videos get the complete building process.
Hi Shaun, This hardware cloth is called #8, which means there are eight 1/8" squares per inch. I have a friend in Australia who didn't know what hardware cloth was, he later found out they call it 3mm mesh over there. I never found it at a Lowes or Home Depot, we have a hardware store called Halls here in Milton Fl that sells it and I have also purchased it on Amazon, I think Amazon has everything.....
